WTC Final 2023: Three players who can replace Jaydev Unadkat in Team India's squad

Team India seems to be in trouble ahead of the forthcoming World Test Championship final 2023 as left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat has sustained an injury while training for his IPL franchise, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

While the 31-year-old was included in India’s ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final squad, the pacer has, however, endured a left-shoulder injury while training in the nets for Super Giants in Lucknow.

The final of the red-ball ICC mega event is scheduled to be played against fierce rivals Australia, starting June 7 at The Oval in London. Though the player is confirmed to miss the remainder of the IPL 2023 season, he is likely to recover in time for the WTC final, as per reports.

It is understood that Unadkat will head for scans in Mumbai and is expected to join the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru for rehab. Despite relishing a fine run in the recently concluded Ranji Trophy 2022/23 season, claiming 26 wickets in mere four matches and winning the title with Saurashtra, it remains to be seen if the pacer can recover swiftly and help India fight hard for the coveted mace. 

However, with the injury in place, the think tank may study alternative plans in the form of other pacers who could join the side as his backup. On that note, we take a look at three such pacers who could potentially replace Unadkat in India's WTC set-up with the final on the horizon-

Three players who can replace Jaydev Unadkat in India’s WTC squad

3. Mukesh Kumar

Mukesh Kumar played an instrumental role in Bengal’s Ranji Trophy campaign, helping them cruise to the finals of the event. The 29-year-old pacer racked up 22 wickets in five matches with an individual best of 4/43. 

Following the Ranji season, he also got four scalps in the Irani Cup for Rest of India in their win against Madhya Pradesh. Moreover, he prevented the rival team from targeting him and concluded with economical figures of 1.91 and 2.83 in the two innings, respectively. 

Sporting the outfit of Delhi Capitals in the IPL, Mukesh has featured in seven matches thus far but has failed to make the kind of impact that he would have liked. The Bihar-born pacer has claimed merely five wickets in the league thus far. However, keeping in mind his domestic numbers, the selection committee could ponder over the idea of having him as a backup for Unadkat in the WTC final.